Where did I last leave you on my
journey through student teaching? Ah
yes, I was trying to figure out how to ask more in-depth questions. I am happy to say that I have gotten better
at posing higher level questions to my students. I think I was able to ask better questions
because I was teaching my unit last week and I had to plan out lessons for five
days. I took my mentor teacher’s advice
and read the text we were going to be reading in class, Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, while I was planning so I
could write out the main questions I wanted to ask. Now that I have had the practice to write out
what higher level questions I want to ask I now need to work on asking higher
level questions on the spot.
During my week of teaching I
tested out my question of “how do I incorporate discussion and still have
enough time to complete the lesson.” I
can now tell you after a week of teaching that it is really difficult to
balance! I wanted to get through all
that I planned with my students but in order to do that there were some days
that I did not ask all of my questions I wanted to ask. If I had more time to teach I would have had
more in-depth discussions with my students.
One struggle I had while teaching was not calling on
the same three students to answer questions.
How can I get more students involved in the discussion? After the first day of only calling on people
who raised their hands I experimented the next day and decided to call on
students. I gave students time to think
about their answer when they did not talk right away but there was one student
who refused to answer the question. I
also gave an opportunity to talk in small groups but that did not help her
answer the question. What are other
techniques I can use to help students be more comfortable voicing their opinions
in the classroom? One technique I have
found on John Spencer’s article Encouraging Introverts to Speak up in School was
number seven on his list of ten ways to get introverts to speak up in
class. He says “I conference ahead of
time with students who are anxious. I affirm their courage in speaking up and
allow them to share their frustrations with the situation.” I like this idea because he gives students a
chance to talk to him one-on-one about any issues they might have about
speaking in front of their classmates. I
want to try this technique with my students who are shy.
One idea that I want to incorporate into my teaching
is allowing students more free time to write about whatever they want to. Students are given times when they write in
my mentor teacher’s classroom but I would like to incorporate more time for
students who enjoy writing. According to
Bomer (2011), “we need to teach students to attend to their thinking, to
develop and extend it” while writing (167).
I would want to incorporate at least one fifteen minute block a week
where students are allowed to write whatever they want to write about. For those who were like me and did not like
having too much freedom while writing I would post writing prompts on the board
to spark an idea.
Link to John Spencer’s article: https://www.quietrev.com/encouraging-introverts-to-speak-up-in-school/
Bomer (2011). Building
adolescent literacy in today’s English classroom. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Ms. Jewell,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, congratulations to your week of teaching: it is no easy feat to cajole, educate, and inspire students. In your reflection, you bring to light an important issue I can relate to in my teaching: having an eclectic mix of voices in the classroom during discussion. As it always turns out, only a smaller portion of my students speak. The rest, I believe it is a symptom contributed to fears. However, the way in which you depict their reticence to speak allows me to critically think and troubleshoot. The ideas you gleamed from Spencer's article cultivated a deeper sense to the dialectal learning environment I wish to instill for my classroom. The idea of allowing students to voice their ideas on a smaller scale, while having an educator enrich them with praise, will enable them to share from smaller communiques to a whole class forum. In regards to your last paragraph, how would you go about constructing that writing time? What parameters would you create for their writing situation (i.e. the space in which they can write)? Would you allow them to move around the classroom, or would you keep them at their desks? Would you invite them to go outside? I wonder how you plan on facilitating a space that truly allows students to become comfortable with themselves and their imagination. As for me, I think it's important to establish space among the writers. Allow them space to really focus with their notebooks, papers, etc. Overall, your reflection offers valuable information on sparking students to utilize their voice. I will for sure read through the rest of Spencer's article, and for sure, keep your educational insights in mind.
I can completely relate to this Madison! When students do not answer or want to answer questions in class can be very intimidating. I like the idea you found about conferencing with students about whatever we may be talking about. I think this would be specifically helpful if we have already identified our "shy" students because then we can ensure that they are engaged but we are also not forcing them to step into uncomfortable territories. I would like to explore different ways of strengthening students abilities to speak in class. Class discussion can be such a valuable thing especially when we get a variety of opinions and perspectives. Like you said, we usually only get a specific group of students who will offer their opinion which is good but also only offers a specific perspective of the topic. I wonder if there is a specific gradual process we can approach when it comes to talking aloud in classroom discussions? Maybe if we gradually through the semester had them do the group discussions, as you suggested, then dove into sharing group opinions out loud, then maybe share with half the class, then the entire class this would ease our more introverted students into confidently speaking their opinions? This is super interesting and I hope you explore more about these students who don't like to speak up in class! Thanks for sharing your experience Madison!
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